00:00The European Union has set 2027 as the target for ending its dependence on Russian energy.
00:10On Tuesday, the European Commission presented its roadmap for eliminating the last imports
00:14of gas, oil and uranium.
00:17Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the EU has already significantly reduced its independence.
00:23Gas imports have fallen from 45% in 2021 to 19% last year.
00:29They should reach 13% by 2025.
00:33The share of Russian oil has fallen from 27% in 2022 to 3% today.
00:39For the Commission, it's necessary to go further in order to avoid any blackmail from Moscow.
00:44Putin has shown many times that he's willing to weaponize energy and that is obviously
00:49not a very nice situation to be in for the European Union's member states.
00:53So that's reason number one.
00:55Reason number two is that we have been buying Russian gas and energy in the last couple
01:00of years for billions of euros and those money they go directly to the war chest of Putin
01:07and that is of course also something that we need to stop.
01:09To achieve this, the Commission is proposing to ban new contracts with Russian gas suppliers
01:14by the end of the year.
01:16For the remaining imports, the longer term contracts purchases will have to cease in 2027.
01:22The Energy Commissioner hopes that the proposal will be adopted by all member states.
01:27However, unanimity is not required in order to avoid any paralysis caused by a capital.
01:33Hungary and Slovakia have expressed their reservations in the past.
01:37It's also very clear that the proposals that I put forward today do not need unanimity.
01:43So, a qualified majority can adopt this.
01:48And this also means that if there are a few countries that do not support, then unfortunately
01:54we will have to go ahead anyway.
01:56Because this is so important for the security of the Union, it's so important for the solidarity
02:01that we need to show with Ukraine, that even though I obviously hope for full support,
02:09a majority can also vote this through.
02:12Unlike sanctions, these import bans do not have to be renewed at regular intervals.
02:18Which again is a way of preventing a member state from blocking the Union.
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